Ravaged To Be Published By Reverb

Despite Kickstarter Success

Ravaged, the impressive post-apocalpytic multiplayer vehicle shooter from 2 Dawn Games, will be published by Reverb. This is good news for the team of ex-Battlefield, Desert Combat and Frontline veterans, but comes on the back of a successful Kickstarter campaign that promised to free the project from publishers... which "has sucked the life out of most games and killed off many good studios."

We assume that Reverb will be providing distribution and marketing rather than direct funding, but it's an interesting move for the indie developer.

“Partnering with Reverb Publishing is a defining moment for us,” said Boris Ustaev, project lead for Ravaged with 2 Dawn Games. “Reverb’s model of supporting digital video game developers provides us with a full menu of production, marketing, public relations, and business development support, allowing us to focus 100 percent of our time on making the best game possible. In addition to Reverb’s support, our popular beta tests have garnered a huge, dedicated following. Couple that with our successful Kickstarter campaign, and we’re in a great position to deliver an amazing game.”

“From the first time our team played Ravaged we knew it was a standout title,” said Doug Kennedy, president and CEO, Reverb Publishing. “This partnership with 2 Dawn Games is a perfect example of why we started Reverb Publishing. This very talented team has a great game and solid community as evidenced by its successful Kickstarter campaign. Reverb will now step in to help elevate the game’s visibility so gamers everywhere can jump into the action and log some kills.”

This is all well and good, and it's great to see Reverb picking up another promising independent title. However, the original Kickstarter campaign was launched with the primary purpose of freeing Ravaged from "publisher restrictions." In this context, the move seems a little odd.

"As video game developers we often get pulled into the land of publishers. While its good to have someone backing your game, it also tends to focus games towards trends, numbers and executive goals. This has sucked the life out of most games and killed off many good studios."

Naturally developers are free (encouraged, even) to seek additional funding after a successful Kickstarter, but we've reached out to 2 Dawn for comment. As we said before, it's likely that Reverb are just providing distribution and marketing clout, but it's interesting nonetheless.